The New Old Vintage: Inside Mom's Closet

You wouldn't be the only one to baulk at the idea of a 'new vitange', because, let's face it, quite often you catch yourself deja vu-ing when it involves today's fashion. You feel like you've seen it somewhere already and that the concept of the paring is something you've seen before.

It's a point best qualified by the fact that trends in the last two years: midi skirts, jean shorts, mid-length skirts, jumpsuits, silk dresses, thick bulky platforms and wedges, high waist pants and swimsuit bottoms, cardigans and beach totes - these creations of Spring/Summer '12 have been around for a little longer and they make you feel cozy and nostalgic.

In fact - you are not the only one who sends yourself down the reminiscing road back to the childhood memories. In fact - you did see these designs/styles before - in the old photo albums of your parents' youth times.

My parents - pre-me stage: her - vintage flare jeans, vintage hobo bag, preppy cardigan; him - jean on jean, oversized watch...

Aside from realizing that you've been wearing the modern versions of your mom's and dad's wardrobe, you also realize that everything comes around and that you wished your parents saved those fashionable items for you!

This is exactly what I've wished for on my visit at my parents over Christmas. After a careful inspection of my mom's wardrobe, I pretty much realized I highly desired her late 70s-early 80s wardrobe for my disposal today.

They say fashion trends travel through time and the fashion from the early times gets re-introduced with a modern twist years later. We all remember looking at the photos of our parents and grandparents and seeing them wear boot-cut jeans and knee length skirts and platform shoes and boots. We see them wear fedoras and high waist pants and swimsuit bottoms, and then we get to experience the same fashion in our time. I wore boot cut jeans in my middle school and platform shoes in my high school. I wore fedoras in the early 2000s and now - I wear mid length feminine cut dresses, a.k.a. DVF and Anna Sui...

That's why I was not surprised - but rather mesmerized by my findings - that not only the fashion repeats itself, but that my parents were very hip young people, especially my mom, who used to tell me that she'd come up with the designs based on the foreign movies and personal sense of style and imagination and take the drawings to the seamstress to make the customized outfits because not many choices were available in Russia, where she grew up. Still, the fashionistas managed to find ways to dress stylishly, even if it meant to make clothes and accessories out of cheap local materials...

That made it even more inspiring - [and respectful of my mom's sense of fashion and abilities to stay true to the trends] - to see how women with so little were able to pull off the fashion. And not only - now when I look at my parents' 'vintage' photos from the 1970s and early 80s, I see so much reference to the today's fashion.

Here are my findings about my mom's wardrobe back in the 1970s and the modern twists of them today: